Floribama Riders

 Friday....  big blob of green on the radar.  Inner ear is toast.  The redhead looked at me and said, "uh uh baby, not gonna get my delicates all moist"....  hmmmm. Should I bail, or go?

Wellllll.....   Inner ear was the main thing, so I just over medicated and said, "screw it", I am jonesin' to ride.  When the Rooster calls, "kwackifoofoo" it's time to put rubber side down.

I rolled in fashionably late at 10:05 for our 10 AM departure.  A nice contingent of riders already were gathered,  Rooster, Amy Stone, I Lean and Sweetness, Mully, Silk and then BD.  After our howdy-do's, we mounted up and took off for the south via I-59. Luckily, the rain that most everyone got was about 50 miles to the west of us most of the day as we had a damp, buy mostly dry run down to Meridien.  After Meridien, we had another quick stop to mess with Amy's SV....  it just wasnt putting out any power and was giving her hell on the ride down.  We messed with the throttle bodies and then I said, "gunk it" kids.  After an hour of dinking with the bike, we poured a bottle of gunk in that little tank, and sure enough, she smoked, she wheezed, she lifted on wheel, put out a huge gaseous fart, and bam! She was running fine. Better living through modern chemistry is my motto.

We hooked up with Stretch at exit 29 about an hour and a half late,  making it there around 3pm.  We had not eaten and so made the call to go ahead and grab some BK burger shots.  Tasty lil meat bombs they are.

We took La Hwy 10 over to St Francisville, and Silk Stretch and I, all checked out for just a tiny bit to enjoy the 8 or 9 miles of curves that lil bit of road gives you. It began to rain a bit harder and we stopped to let those that had shed rain gear to reapply. I was tired of takin stuff off and on and just left on my Tourmaster jacket.  (BTW, it is NOT rainproof or waterproof no matter what the tag sez)  We rolled into St Francisville around 5 pm and found our domecile for the evening, the quaint and lovely St Francisville Inn. 

After checking in, we convened in the parlor which also is a wine shop chock full of very nice wines.  We met Laurie, the proprietor, her sis in law, the sis in law's momma, and one of Lauries BFF's.  Whatta hoot!  The ladies were only semi-lit, so we bought a couple of bottles to make sure thier wicks were properly burning.  Come to find out, Colleen, the sis in law, is friends with one of my best buddies in Baton Rouge!  Such a dang small world!

We then went over the magnolia cafe to hold court and enjoy the local flavor. The staff and the patrons all had something nice to say to us and we visited with several of the homies that hang out there. Heck, this is what is so fun about a ride like this....  meeting and greeting interesting and unique folks!  All of them were very interested in where we came from, and where we were headed.  They all had ideas on what to see and where to go while there.... unfortunately, we had already set a schedule so we will just have to make a list and revisit next year!

One last bottle of red vino shared on the porch put us in, "dang, the Sandman just dumped a wheelbarrow of sand in my eyes" mode.  Midnite, and BD was curled up in his king size, 4 poster antique bed.....mmmmmmmmmmmm zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Laurie had a great spread of breakfast items out and we all filed in at our leisure for breakfast. Stretch, Amy, and I enjoyed a cuppo Community coffee and some varied breakfast tasties.

Wheels up at 10, and we started a backroads tour down to Abita Springs.  We rode for about 100 miles on back roads with very little traffic in front of us and enjoyed the cajun countryside.  Flowers were in full bloom and the Azaleas had waited until we came down to profer there splendor.  Those guys are about 2 to 3 weeks ahead of us in regard to spring, so it was a nice taste of what is to come here for us.  The ride was uneventful and we hit I-12 for a short hop over to Abita Springs.  After finding the brewery, we shared time in the waiting room with about 40 college students.  There is an open bar with basically all you can drink of the 10 different beers brewed there. The college students seemed to be huge fans of the Abita beers based on the numbers of trips made and their, ahem, enthusiasm of inebriation.  FBR did some small tastings and I tried the Strawberry beer.  Interesting.  I converted back to the wonderful Root beer they make there and enjoyed it just as much as the alcoholic version.

The tour was maybe a 15 minute affair, and the hosts left the bar open for another 20 minutes for the college kids.  Mind you, it started pissing rain when we unloaded and went into the brewery.  It quit the minute we came out to go to lunch. Serendipity, baby.

We rode over into Abita Springs and had lunch at the Brew Pub.  It is the old building of the brewery and they do a nice job of burgers and such with the beers on tap. We took over the bar area and ate a quick lunch there with the knowledge we had the French Quarter awaiting.

I have been on the Causeway over Lake Ponchartrain years ago in a car.... and it was kind of a hoot to make the ride on a bike. 26 miles of bridge. Kind of eerie in some ways.  We rode through a fairly steady rain all the way across the lake until we reached the outskirts of New Orleans.  Silk had to put a bit of Oil in her Fizzy, and we took the opportunity to dry off a bit under the awning of a big gas station.  One last hop onto I-10 put us in the French Quarter and easy access to the hotel, Maison Dupuy.  Nice place, offstreet parking, but man, they were slammed......   all the cars in the parking area were trucks or bigger, so the parking in the quarter is truly a premium.

After an hour of cleaning up, drying off, watching the end of the WSB races and cheering Bennie, we met downstairs for cocktails and the requisite stroll through the quarter.  Amy had never been to NO, so it was fun for her to experience the place with us.  We ran into a huge Italian American parade, complete with beads, purty gals, loud music, and overall revelry.  It is always fun to get caught up in the overall party experience of Bourbon street, and we each had a big ole smile on our face after watching the antics of the balcony bead throwers and the folks on the floats in the parade. After about 2 hours of messing around in the quarter, we headed over to the restauarant.

Fun stuff.... great food.... a visitation by Blutarsky all made for a wonderful evening with friends.  Rooster and I shared a bottle of wonderful Duckhorn Merlot and I had a meal that made me wanna lick my elbows.  They should issue wheelbarrows for patrons to put their tummies in after eating.  Lil Miz Wet Bidness was officially brought into the order of Blutarsky with her new name of Zipper.  Zipper and I decided we should commemorate the evening with tattoos, so our merry band hailed a cab and over to Rampart street we went.  BD opted to have one of his tats refreshed, and a FBR tattoo put above the Dreamrider. I also added the arabic word, Habibi, for my love of my life.  Zipper had a tat designed for her and got her name put inside one of the cross bones.  Next time you see the Zipper, demand an audience.

We then ambled off in the soggy evening looking for a watering hole, and ended up at Fahey's on Toulouse and Burgundy.  Local bar, it was loud, smoky, stinky, and cheap. 3 rounds of cocktails for our crew came up to 26 bucks.  lol.  By midnite, the sandman had kicked my ass again, so it was time to head the 30 feet back over to the hotel.

Sunday morning was still damp, but no rain. We walked over to Cafe DuMonde for Cafe au lait and beignets and plan our exit from the Big Easy.  Souvenirs purchased, bikes packed, tummies full, we hit the road at 11 am.

We made good time going home...  Zipper will have to give you the story of her "almost" performance award.  For the last leg of the trip, we put her in front to do her first ride lead. Dadgum, girlfriend, you sure put the hammer down.  During the process, we made her drag out a fundamental garment (zerbra striped Brazziere), stuffed those puppies full of paper just like Dean Wormer's daughter, and followed that eyeful up I-59.   Big Grin.

Thanks to Rooster for puttin out the call ...  great to see and ride with Silk... Jenkins, you are one of my faves on the road, darlin.  Mulley, as always is an affable rock of a guy that is solid as Sears. I-Lean, well, honey, you crack me up. Sweetness, sorry I didnt know you were having problems motoring on Sat nite.... we woulda backed it off. Stretch, well, one of my longest pairings in FBR is with Stretch Armstrong and it is always a delight to share time with him.  Zipper, welcome to da family.  Great times, folks, sorry if you missed it.... trust me, it will be an annual event.